​“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you.” Jesus is not calling the disciples to become “door mats” but rather he is attempting to make a key paradigm shift from violence to nonviolence. He is challenging his followers to be willing to go beyond what the law allowed, “an eye for and eye”, and embrace something much more difficult, to embrace “the other”! He calls us to be merciful as God is merciful, to love our enemies, to give to whoever asks of us.

How is all of this humanly possible? It seems too much! God’s goodness and mercy is so great, how can any human act be as good and merciful as God? Some theologians say that God’s goodness and mercy comes down to “generosity” -- a generosity so grand that it created all known reality, that even the incarnation is self-giving, as was Jesus’ death, as was his resurrection and as is our salvation. So then this “generosity”, this “out pouring” of God’s self into the world empowers us, fills us, emboldens us and ultimately changes us to become more generous, less violent, less bent on getting even and more moved to be kind and loving to “the other”.

So we begin to work for ways in which our society makes room for the immigrant and the migrant rather than ways to keep them out. This spirit of generosity calls us to let go of racist, misogynist and other bigoted attitudes towards others and to work for justice and peace in our homes, our communities, our nation and in our world. Perhaps this generosity of spirit grows from first finding our own gratitude for being loved so deeply and passionately by God, just as we are. And from that gratitude grows our ability to be generous and merciful towards “the other”, who is my sister, my brother. For what am I grateful for today? To whom will I be generous and merciful towards today?